Romanian Prime Minister Admits He Has No Idea Why Romania Signed ACTA

from the us-pressure? dept

Here's a bizarre one. With Poland putting ACTA ratification on hold, and Slovenia apparently regretting its signature, now we've got Romania's Prime Minister, Emil Boc, admitting that he doesn't understand why the country signed ACTA. It appears that opposing politicians are criticizing the government and promising that they will suspend enforcement under ACTA until there are actual public hearings held on the matter. It really is quite amazing that the folks in the entertainment industry, who thought they could ram this through are now discovering how much they've awakened internet users across the globe ever since they shot for the moon with SOPA. ACTA has been on the table for years, and only a few of us "copyright geeks" were paying attention to it. But SOPA really made it clear to huge populations of people just how the entertainment industry seeks to restrict the internet through copyright law... and they're simply not going to take that any more. Update: And... um... just like that, he's no longer Prime Minister, offering up his resignation today.

Re: I wonder

Re: Re: I wonder

Probably all of them.

You guys just don't understand! You have to pass the treaties/global laws before you can read what is in them. Jeesh, crony capitalism and bought politicians only work that way! It is the only way to keep us intellectually challenged trolls in power and keeps artists from realizing there is an easier, better way of getting noticed instead of going through us where we can rip them off.

Re: I wonder

and it's about bloody time! why should every person on the planet loose things that have taken scores of years to achieve, be restricted by an industry that has no thought other than for itself and has no intention of employing a vision of the future?

Looks like keeping it secret from the public meant keeping it secret from politicians too. And they all signed it because someone with lots of cash told them too and said it was good for them (someone from the U.S. most likely).

Last-minute information: following Poland, the Chech Republic has also postponed ratification until further notice to hold a public discussion on ACTA. This happend after protests similar to Poland's, as well as ANONYMOUS DDoS attacks directed at Chech websites.

The best part is the part where the idiots from the industry said they wanted others to hear and debate copyrights.

Well know the public is hearing them and I bet the industry is not liking what is coming out of the public, every single person on earth hates them and wants the end of this nonsense even if it means the end of copyrights itself, nobody will come to defend them, nobody is rallying behind them.

And all of this was told to them in no uncertain terms, now they will have to live with the consequences of it, the public is another big hammer even bigger than the law and once it is target on something it will hit it until it is inline.

Hollywood made a similar mistake to the Komen foundation's mistake of dropping, and then reinstating Planned Parenthood funding.

Hollywood could of kept on quietly adding victory after victory with treaties making IP terms longer and IP laws more enforced.

Komen could have kept on quietly appearing as a nonpartisan charity with no stance required on controversial issues like abortion.

Instead Hollywood awoke a sleeping giant with SOPA/PIPA, that alerted the public to the dangers of draconian copyright laws/terms/enforcement. Now Hollywood will have a much harder time pushing anything through, and may even start suffering changes in IP laws unfavorable to them, such as less enforcement, or shorter terms.

Komen meanwhile managed to piss everyone off, and cause a whole bunch of negative stories to get run on other stuff. Now people are questioning how much money Komen receives is actually spent treating breast cancer and researching cures for it (It's less then 1/3 according to their own financial statements). Also stories about their abuse of trademark and suing smaller weaker charities for daring to use 'for the cure' in their names/slogans are also getting more attention. This will make it much harder for Komen to raise money long term, especially with everything they do now being viewed in a partisan lens.

Re: Pearl Harbor

Probably none of them. They still see the general citizenry as a resource to be controlled by whoever has the most expensive ad campaign. Right now they think they just need a good way to counter Google's influence and all will be well. This is less Pearl Harbor and more Gettysburg.

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'I do not believe that any of the EU countries are presently "full-fledged" members.'

if sense plays it's part, there wont be any 'full fledged members' either. perhaps then everywhere else will start to realise that the only reason they signed was because of the threats of sanctions etc from the US and to prop up the US entertainment industries. hopefully, repealing some of the one-sided laws already in place will then quickly follow

Superbowl Commercials

I missed the superbowl yesterday, as I don't watch football much anymore, but I do check you tube for the commercials(wierd right?), and I noticed that I couldn't get the marvel avengers commercial on you tube. So hollywood, in their usual panties in a wad style, passed up free advertisement for their movies because it was you tube I'm assuming....were people might pirate your pilot? I'm confused...

Re: Re: Superbowl Commercials

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Avengers is just a remake of previous works, that's all Hollywood is doing and has ever done. That's what copyright and television brings, it brings rehashes of previous works and locks them up for others so that no one else can ever use them. Hollywood, thanks to copyright law, is the most derivative source of content and has always been. Avengers just takes previous characters and repackages them into a movie and it passes as new. I would say Copyright law has put us in the most derivative time in history, everything thanks to copyright and Hollywood has been a rehash of rehashes.

(not that there is anything wrong with rehashes, but IP extremists keep complaining about how the Internet brings us rehashes so why can't I complain about how copy'right' and Hollywood has brought us rehashes).

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and if you don't like what you allege to be rehashes on the Internet then, instead of complaining, don't watch them.

and another example of rehashes are textbooks. The textbook industry always comes up with new math books that are simply the old ones with a few pages flipped around and they charge a fortune for them. and schools can't keep the old ones for too long because eventually they run out of used copies and since they can't simply copy the old math books, since it's illegal, schools (and students) are forced to buy new rehashes of math books that are only rehashes of the old ones with a few pages flipped around. If it weren't for copy protection laws publishers would be encouraged to actually change the books to make them more useful, and offer reason to buy, instead of simply changing up a few pages and re-selling the same thing over and over.

So don't give me this nonsense about how ignoring copy protection laws and the Internet leads to rehashes. No, what leads to rehashes are the IP cartels and IP laws that allow IP holders to make money off of old material instead of coming up with something new to give people additional reason to buy.

Nobody reads these things

European countries are not full-fledged members of ACTA. 20 countries out of 26 have SIGNED the document, but the signing is just a "promise" of ratification. None of the countries have RAFITIED ACTA, which means it is not in effect. Furthermore, some countries (Poland, the Chech Republic) have POSTPONED RATIFICATION until further notice.

If the **AA were held as liable by the laws as I am....

If the **AA were held as liable by the laws as I am, then we would see some interesting lawsuits and charges.

RIAA would be jailed pending their soundproofing every venue for music, thus setting up a situation of entrapment for every citizen who passed by unknowingly.

MPAA fined for allowing drive-in movies.[I know, but there must be at least ONE somewhere out there that hasn't heard that they are extinct.]

Those annoying TV screens in cars would have to be removed or hidden from outside view. Daily fines accrue to MPAA until that is done.

Radio taken off the air as an enticement to violate the law.

Ditto TV.

Copyright enforcement is a two-way street. The **AA should be required to put in as much effort as I have to. Otherwise, the legal doctrines of laches and unclean hands enters the picture. If they haven't made reasonable efforts to enforce copyrights, and protect their Preciouussss IP, then why should we be bothered?

Note that I am not putting the artists in the place of the **AA. The artists are not in favor of these laws, and haven't been the ones writing or pushing for their passage. The artists seem to have more common sense.

A high school friend of mine ended up being a TV writer and producer. When we were rooming together in college, I was attending engineering school, and he was trying to pass the Liberal Arts remedial math course. He once said to me in frustration, "You're smart at math. You probably even know the pi of 9."

I should ask him what he thinks of SOPA/PIPA/ACTA. He used to use names of our friends in his shows for his characters. He tried to get mine in once or twice, but the editors just wouldn't buy a name like mine as being real. I wonder which way the studios would go on that little piece of copyright reuse?

Yeah, there's an ongoing online ACTA debate right now in Poland with our prime minister and the minister of culture and various non-government organizations and various individuals. The gonvernment is getting slammed, our equivalent of RIAA (ZAiKS) is getting slammed, all is good :-). This might lead to a liberalization of copyright law in Poland and across the EU. One can hope.

Emil Boc has just resigned so a new government will be formed, which will not be voted by the opposition... the politics here is a mess right now with opposition boycotting the parliament and senate.

Anyway, of course Boc didn't know anything, he was just a puppet (like Dmitry Medvedev was Putin's cover) for the president Basescu which is well known for sucking up to whatever US says.

He wants to buy second hand American planes, he accepted to install US anti-missile radars here in the country, he and his party offered big construction contracts to US companies that never went anywhere but wasted hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most people here don't really know about ACTA, but some TV channels are starting to talk about it and the opposition is against ratifying it without public being involved.

As a nation, we're a bit slow at protesting, there's no such culture in us, so I personally don't see large protests against it but hopefully something will happen.

Marius, please report on your country's situation on an ongoing basis if you can :-). Is your country planning nationwide ACTA protests on the 11th as well? We are going into the second stage of protests, since the open discussions with the government don't seem to be going anywhere.

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you'll find some 30 Romanian cities joining the 2/11 protests, with almost 20,000 people confirmed on the Facebook page of the protest. I think the real number will be much lower. The reasons? Add to our lack of 'protest culture' the recent resignation of our PM (which will shift the public interest to some other directions) and the temperatures below -15° C forecast for Saturday evening.